Colorado’s Willett Takes the Gold in Snowboard Slopestyle

Tignes, France – Last month, Breckenridge resident Eric Willett took home a silver medal from Snowboard Slopestyle at Winter X Games 14 in Aspen. Today in the men’s final in Tignes, France, Willett upgraded and will bring gold back to his hometown in Colorado.

“I wasn’t really landing my tricks in practice, but somehow it all clicked and came together for me in the final,” Willett said about his win. After his second run put him in the lead, he said, “I had no idea what I was going to do, and I’m so stoked right now. The course is perfect and the riding level is insane.”

Willett threw down a solid second run that put him in the lead for the gold medal with his mixed tricks of backside 720, frontside double cork 1080 and switch backside 900. USA’s Sage Kotsenburg followed close behind to win silver. Marko Grilc of Slovakia took the bronze.

“Winter X Games Europe has lived up to my expectations,” said Grilc. “It is so great to see the biggest event in action sports come to Europe.”

There were four previous Winter X Games medalists in the final field: Travis Rice, Iouri Podladtchikov, Eric Willet and Chas Guldemond with seven medals among them. Podladtchikov and Christian Haller of Switzerland competed at the Olympic Games in Vancouver.

Tignes, France – Kaitlyn Farrington has competed in the Winter X Games for the past three years, and tonight in the women’s Snowboard SuperPipe final, she leaves Winter X Games Europe with her first gold medal. In a field of six women, four of whom were Olympians, Farrington and Bright went head-to-head for the title.

“I was already psyched after all my runs because I knew, regardless, I was going to be on the podium with Torah,” Farrington said of watching Torah take her last run that would decide the champion.

Farrington led after her first run then had to bump up her difficulty with a backside 900 in run two when Torah Bright took the lead. Bright’s third run was her best with a combination of tricks that included a backside and frontside 540, backside air and frontside 720.

“X Games is such a huge event to action sports and to have it in France only enhances the culture of action sports on a whole,” Bright said of Winter Games coming to Europe. “That is why I am here to support the first ever Winter X Games Europe – it is history in the making.”

France added another medal to their count as Sophie Rodriguez of Grenoble finished with a bronze.

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